Known as "Markasi" in earlies ages, this city, 78 km north of Gaziantep, stands as a site of history, having a long past filled with numerous invasions, was once the capital of Gurgum, a Hittite State in the 12thcentury BC.

There exists an archaeological museum inside the citadel, where Hittite sculptures are on display. Other important remains in the area are the Ulu Mosque and the Tats Medrese, both dating back to the 15thcentury, together with the Hatuniye and Beyazit Mosques of the Ottoman period.

This province, the original name of which was Maras, had shown such valour during the War of Independence, that it was then given the title "Kahraman", which means of "hero".

The speciality of the region is its famous icecream well, and worth trying. Carved wooden furnitures, copper and brass works and handworks of glided silver thread are also treasured. Caving, hunting, fishing beside plateaus and picnicking areas are also famous

Time Line of Maras  

A city in Commagene, on the Upper Aksu River about 112 miles (180 km.) northwest of Edessa and a similar distance north of Antioch. In the turbulent times following the Battle of Manzikert, it constituted an independent Armenian Principality which for a time included Antioch, Edessa, and southern Cilicia.

• To the Byzantine Empire until 1071
• Vahram (Philaret) was the Byzantine governor in Marash. He refused to recognize Michael VII Ducas following the catastrophic defeat of Romanus IV Diogenes at the hands of the Seljuqs in 1071. Vahram established an independent Lordship for himself in southern Anatolia, but it was of short duration.
• Vahram............................................1071-1087 d. 1092
• Thatul......................................... < 1097-1104
• To Edessa.........................................1104-1144
• To Mosul..........................................1144-1175
• To Egypt..........................................1175-1258
• To the Mongols, and the Persian Ilkhans...........1258-1335
• To Egypt..........................................1335-1375
• To Cilicia (Ramadan-Oghlu)........................1375-1608
• To the Ottoman Empire thereafter...